History Proves That the Seventh Day Sabbaths Were Set According To the Lunar Months During the Time of Jesus Christ, By Observing the New Moon Crescents

The priests in Jerusalem were keeping the lunar - based calendar that included weeks pegged to the phases of the moon. This occurred during the centuries, just before the time of the birth of Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh) Christ:(MaSHiYCH). This occurred during the days of Jesus':(YaHuWSHuWAh’s) life upon this earth, and during the days of the Apostles, after Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh) ascended to the righthand side of the throne of YaHuWaH. And this also occurred during the time, after the death of the Apostles, among Jesus':(YaHuWSHuWAh’s) servants, who where still yet alive.
After the death of the true servants, who were like-minded as Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh) Christ:(MaSHiYCH), the keeping of the Sabbaths, according to the phases of the moon, came to an end. The Early Jewish/Christians, who were true servants being like-minded as Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh) Christ:(MaSHiYCH), were still keeping the true Sabbaths, according to the phases of the moon. But eventually, those, who became Roman Gentile Christians, were no longer keeping the true Sabbaths. The Law of ALaHiYM was no longer being taught unto the people, who claimed to be servants being like-minded as Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh) Christ:(MaSHiYCH), because those, who opposed the message of Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh), destroyed all, who held fast to the message of the Apostles. The only ones, which were allowed to live, were those, who accepted the new pagan Roman Gentile Christian doctrine, which became known as Gentile Christianity, today.
Here is what Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh) Christ:(MaSHiYCH) had to say about the religious leaders 'the Pharisees' of his day:
MAT 23:1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
MAT 23:2 Saying, the Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:
MAT 23:3 All, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do, but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
MAT 23:4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
MAT 23:5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
MAT 23:6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
MAT 23:7 And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, rabbi, rabbi.
MAT 23:8 But be not ye called rabbi: for one is your master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.
MAT 23:9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your father, which is in heaven.
MAT 23:10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your master, even Christ
MAT 23:11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
MAT 23:12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
MAT 23:13 But woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
MAT 23:14 Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
MAT 23:15 Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
MAT 23:16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.
MAT 23:17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
MAT 23:18 And, whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.
MAT 23:19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
MAT 23:20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.
MAT 23:21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.
MAT 23:22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of god, and by him that sitteth thereon.
MAT 23:23 Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgement, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
MAT 23:24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
MAT 23:25 Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
MAT 23:26 Thou blind pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
MAT 23:27 Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
MAT 23:28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
MAT 23:29 Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Because ye build the tombs of the Prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
MAT 23:30 And say, if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Prophets.
MAT 23:31 Wherefore, ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them which killed the Prophets.
MAT 23:32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
MAT 23:33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
MAT 23:34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you Prophets, and wise men, and Scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
MAT 23:35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel:(HeBeL) unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
MAT 23:36 Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation.
MAT 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.
MAT 23:38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
MAT 23:39 For I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name:(honour, authority, and character) of the Lord.
During the time of Apostle Paul, the congregations of the gentiles in Asia minor, who WERE Called:(Invited) to serve in righteousness by being like-minded as Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh), were called 'Christians', by the gentiles in those same areas, who were not servants existing like-minded as Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh) Christ:(MaSHiYCH). The Gentiles of Asia Minor, who became Believing Jewish/Christians, are recorded of, in an old Britannic Encyclopedia of the 1930's, as the Early Christians, who were different from those, who are called Gentile Christians, today.
Yes, absolutely, indeed, they were different in character.
The following information explains how the True Lunar Seventh Day Sabbath, which was originally appointed by the visual sighting of the New Moon crescent, was changed to become a Saturday sabbath, in honour of the pagan god Saturn. The true lunar calendar of YaHuWaH was replaced with the solar calendar, After the days of Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh) Christ:(MaSHiYCH), and the death of the Apostles.
In the article, "Shawui Sabbath - Ancient Sabbath Observance", we find written the following:
"Most theologians and some scholars assume that mainstream Jewish society, at the time of Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh), was practicing a fixed seven-day week, which was the same as the modern fixed seven-day week. This is extremely doubtful. The change, from a lunar to a fixed week, was brought about by the power and influence of Rome. As long as the Nazarenes held power in Jerusalem, all Roman practices and customs, including that of the consecutive week, were held at bay."
This article goes on to explain:
"YaHuWSHuWAh observed a Sabbath, but this Sabbath was neither Saturday nor Sunday. The Nazarene Sabbath was a lunar Sabbath observed on the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first and twenty-eighth day of the lunar month. This was standard practice among the Beni-amen Nazarene order and most of the other orthodox Jewish sects of the time. Lunar Sabbath observance is an ancient Semitic custom, concurrent and ante-dating the time of Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh)." (Ibid.)
Further, states the article:
"It is a mistake to assume that the ancient followers of Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh) kept the modern week consisting of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. They did not. Their week was a lunar week, which started over at the beginning of each phase of the moon. Most scholars agree that the modern concept of the week began in the first century and was made popular by Rome, although there is not unanimous agreement on this point."
"At the time of Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh) Christ:(MaSHiYCH), the observance of the Seventh Day Sabbath was a national command for those in Judah. The Beni-amen [Nazarenes] observed the Sabbath according to the lunar quarters (on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of the lunar month)." (Ibid)
But what of the Gentiles, who became Jewish/Christians? Did they also observe a lunar Sabbath cycle?
Early historical records clearly confirm: that, AT A VERY EARLY DATE, Gentiles, who became Jewish/Christians under the Apostles, also kept the same Sabbath calendar as the Nazarenes.
In the article 'Shawui Calendar - Ancient Shawui Observance', the author expounds:
"The Sabbath observed by Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh) and his family, was not alway on a Saturday or a Sunday, and is calculated in a manner all together different than the modern custom of weekday observance. The method of calculating weekdays on Jesus':(YaHuWSHuWAh's) calendar is at variance with the modern fixed week system. According to the Hebrew calendar system, each week begins at the beginning of the four phases of the moon; the sighting of the New Moon Crescent starts the first quarter, then there is the second quarter, the third quarter, and the last quarter of the moon."
Continuing, we read:
"After the fourth lunar week of the month ends on the 28th, the next day or two is a Dark Moon Day, which is not part of any lunar week. (A new week does not begin until the following New Moon Crescent occurrence.) This may seem odd, to a person following the modern calendar of continuous fixed weeks, but to the ancients, it made perfect sense to pause and prepare themselves before entering and beginning a new month and a new cycle of four weeks." (Ibid)
James Dwyer, in his article "Advanced Astronomy In Bible Texts", writes:
"The Early [Jewish]/Christian descriptions of a weekly cycle containing periodic single days are very clear, and this information (coupled with evidence provided by the measurable lunar/solar phenomena) strongly indicates that Early [Jewish]/Christians were practicing a lunar-based calendar." (p.42)
The same author, in another article entitled "A New Look At The Christian Sabbath", expresses:
"It now seems almost certain that some additional definitions of the early Sabbath cycle are missing from the modern tradition of the seven-day week. Essentially, the modern week, as a continuous cycle of seven days, does not seem to equate to the definition of the week as it was used during the Early Jewish/Christian era."
Writing about his article, James Dwyer asserts:
"This new research looks at the Sabbath calendar, as it would have been known to a mainstream Jew, living in the second temple era, and it finds the Sabbath to have been a rather sophisticated interface with the lunar-solar system. In this earlier time, the Sabbath cycle, surprisingly, was defined by the phases of the moon, and, even more surprising than this, the Sabbath cycle also revolved into precise alignment with the Annual Feast Circuit."
Further, in chapter 16 of "The Stromata", Clement plainly writes:
"In periods of seven days, the moon undergoes its changes. At the end of the first week, she becomes half moon; at the end of the second [week], full moon; and at the end of the third [week], in her wane, again half moon; and at the end of the fourth [week] she disappears."
This is about as plain as it can get. Obviously, in Clement’s day, the week, (as kept by the Jews), was still tied to the moon's phases, and by extension, the Seventh Day Sabbath was still tied to the moon, also.
However, it appears, that, by this time: (150-215 A.D.), some of the Jewish/Christians had gotten away from a week and Sabbath, which was dependent upon the lunar reckoning.
The Gentile Christian Divorcement Of The Sabbath
In the years following Clement of Alexandria’s time, an ominous change started to take place, which was to radically change the [Jewish]/Christian concept of the Sabbath. "This intimate connection", records the Encyclopedia Biblica, " The relationship between the week and the month was soon dissolved. It is certain that the week soon followed a development of its own, and it became the custom, without paying any regard to the days of the month, (I.E. the lunar month), so that the beginning of each moon phases no longer coincided with the first day of the week." (The Macmillan Company, 1899. p. 5290)
Then, on page 4179 of the same Encyclopedia, we read:
"The introduction of the custom of celebrating a sabbath every 7th day, irrespective of the relationship of the day to the moon's phases, led to a complete separation from the ancient view of the Sabbath."
In the article "Shawui Calendar - Ancient Shawui Observance", we find confirmation of this radical change of YaHuWaH ALaHiYM lunar calendar:
"The [lunar] calendar was used by all of the disciples of Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh). This original Nazarene lunar calendar was supplanted by a Roman 'planetary week' and calendar in 135 C.E., when the 'Bishops of the Circumcision' (I.E. legitimate Nazarene successors to YaHuWSHuWAh) were displaced from Jerusalem. This began a three hundred year controversy, concerning the true calendar and correct Sabbath. This [calendar] controversy arose after the exodus of the Bishops of the Circumcision, and has continued until our time." (Epiphanius, He 4, 6, 4)
The Ancient Historian Iranaeus suggests:
"The groundwork, for this supplanting of the true calendar, began in Rome with a bishop Sixtus (C.A. 116 - C.A. 126). Sixtus was the first to celebrate a Sunday Easter in Rome, instead of the traditional 'Nisan 15 date,' when the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins in the lunar calendar. This change, from the lunar calendar to a fixed solar calendar, occurred in Rome during the repressive measures, which were enacted against all Jewish customs and practices, including the lunar calendar, during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. With the fall of the Nazarene Headquarters, at Jerusalem, this new Roman calendar quickly spread throughout 'Christendom'. This new calendar not only replaced yearly Festival dates, such as Passover, but it also revamped the concept of the week and its seventh day."
Hutton Webster points out:
"The Early [Jewish]/Christians, had at first, adopted the Jewish [lunar] seven-day week with its numbered weekdays, but by the close of the third century A.D., this began to give way to the planetary week; and in the fourth and fifth centuries, the pagan designations became generally accepted in the western half of [Gentile] Christendom. The use of the planetary names, by [modern day Gentile] Christians, attests to the growing influence of astrological speculations, introduced by converts from paganism." ("Rest Days: A Study In Early Law And Morality." New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916. p. 220)
It should be noted:
"The oldest dated [Gentile] Christian inscription, to employ a planetary designation, belongs to the year 269 A.D.." (Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae, Ed. De Rossi, 1861, I, No. 1)
In the article "Shawui Sabbath - Ancient Sabbath Observance", the author asks these questions:
"But what of the Gentiles of Asia Minor, who became Jewish/Christians? Did they also observe a Sabbath according to the lunar cycle?"
Early historical records clearly confirm:
Very Early, The Gentiles of Asia Minor, who became Jewish/Christians, also kept the same lunar Sabbath calendar as the Nazarenes. This practice was first changed by Pope Sixtus in 126 A.D.. Later it was officially changed by a royal Roman decree, from the Emperor Constantine. Observance of the Sabbath day was made illegal and observance of a 'Sunday', on a fixed week, was made mandatory for all, except farmers. Previous to this time, the Roman Saturday was the first day of the Roman week. The veneration of the sun, in the second century A.D., began to pressure Roman culture, to change the first day of their week from Saturday to Sunday. (Had the Jews been observing this same Roman calendar at this early date, as some maintain, then their Seventh Day Sabbath would have been on Friday, which was the traditional seventh day of this Roman calendar during the first century A.D.).
Hutton Webster adds:
"The change from such lunar cycles, by those people unconnected with the lunations, would not have involved so abrupt and sudden a departure from the previous system of time reckoning, as that, from a bipartite division of the lunar month to a week, which ran continuously through the months and the years." (Rest Days)
Babylonian Rabbis Divorce The Sabbath
After the death of the Apostles, the strong influence of the pagan Roman Gentile Christian doctrine caused some of the Jewish/Christians, to adopt a continuous seven-day week, with the Sabbath on every seventh day. The believing Jews, at that time, also came under this same subtle influence. Following the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D., the Palestinian Jews struggled hard, to retain control of the sacred calendar.
Certain Early Believing Jewish/Christians did not ever turn away from observing and doing the Law. These Early Jewish/Christian Believers were put to death by the Roman Gentile Christian armies, because of their love for YaHuWaH ALaHiYM and their neighbor as themselves.
Notes the Encyclopedia Britannica:
"The calendar was originally fixed by observation, and ultimately by calculation. Up to the fall of the Temple (A.D. 70), witnesses, who saw the New Moon [Crescent], came forward and were strictly examined , and if their evidence was accepted, the month was fixed by the priests. Eventually the authority passed to the Sanhedrin and ultimately to the Patriarch. When necessary, a second 'Adar' was inserted, in order that the reaping of the [barley] corn should come at Passover. Gradually, observation gave place to calculation. The right, to determine the calendar, was reserved to the Patriarchate; The Jews, of Mesopotamia, tried in vain, to establish their own calendar, but the prerogative of Palestine was zealously defended.
Continues the Encyclopedia:
"So long as Palestine remained a religious centre, it was natural to the homeland that the diaspora looked for its calendar. Uniformity was essential, for if different parts had celebrated feasts on different days, then confusion would have ensued. It was not until the 4th century A.D. that Babylon fixed the calendar. The Talmud speaks of various new year's days. It may be regarded as certain that, in Palestine, the new year [Rosh Hoshanna] began in Nissan (CF. EXO. XII. 2), and in Babylon, in Tishri." (Volume 4, Article 'Calendar')
What is not realized by many people:
Those, who had control of the calendar, had ultimate political authority in Judaism. In other words, whoever controlled the calendar, also controlled the appointed course of the Jewish people, for righteous or for evil.
Herschel shanks writes:
"In the period, after 70 C.E., the rabbis arrogated this authority to themselves. In the story that appears in the Talmudim, rabbi Hananiah, an emigre Judean scholar, tried to assert the supremacy of Babylonian Jewry, by asserting its right, (that is, his own right while in Babylonia), to intercalate the calendar. His attempt was unsuccessful, because it was several centuries too early. This authority remained, for some time, with the rabbis, in the land of Israel." (Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism, p. 197)
Notes shanks:
"Ultimately, all this began to change in the third century C.E., for the rabbis of Babylonia themselves cited in retrospect, the return of one of their own, Rav (Abba), to Babylonia in 219 C.E., as the beginning of a new era in the relative status of the two great Jewish communities:
We have made ourselves [or consider ourselves], in Babylonia, like Eretz Israel, from when Rav went down to Babylonia."
Shanks continues:
"While this may seem to telescope a long drawn out process into one identifiable event, the fact is, that the date designated in that statement, indeed, points accurately to the early third century, when Babylonia’s star began to rise." (Ibid, p. 262)
While the control of the calendar remained in the hands of the Palestinian Jews, it was inviolate:[kept according to the Law], but, when the control passed to the Babylonian Jews, events transpired, which affected the calendar and the keeping of YaHuWaH ALaHiYM true Sabbath day.
The environment, which brought this about, is discussed by Herschal shanks, in the following pages of his book:
"As we enter the third century, we find that the Jews of Babylonia have, at their head, an Exilarch (Resh Galuta), 'head of the diaspora', with [false] claims to David’s lineage... But the Exilarchate did not rule the Babylonian Jewish communities single-handedly. Alongside the Exilarch, a new framework of leadership, the rabbis of Babylon, emerged."
Continues shanks:
"If the rabbis of Babylonia were prudent, in their relationship, with the Exilarch, they were even more cautious, in defining and publicly stating their attitude toward the government. As we have already noted, it is in Babylonia, [not Palestine], that we encounter the well-formulated principle, that the law of the government is law." (Ibid, pp. 263-264)
Shanks brings out:
"There were very marked differences, in the attitude toward government and the preservation of Jewish religion and life, between the Palestinian and Babylonian Jews. The Palestinian Jews jealously guarded their religion and way of life, while the Babylonian Jews were clearly, willing to accommodate the government of their area and compromise certain principles they held. This included the Sabbath day. During this time, a major revival of the Zoroastrian religion, took place in (226 A.D.), when the first Sassanian king, Ardeshir, came to the Persian throne. He made reforms to the old lunar-based calendar, which had a far-reaching effect on his people, (especially the Jews), who initially rejected his new calendar, since it affected their religious observances. This resulted, for a while, in two calendars, one decreed by the king and the other, older one, followed by the majority of the people in the kingdom. Eventually, however, the new calendar won out and the Persians, as well as the Jews of Babylonia, began to organize their sabbaths, according to the new solar calendar."
In the early centuries of the [Constantine Gentile] Christian era, many non believing [Gentile] Christians became confused over the proper date for the Passover. This Is made clear, in the early 5th century, by the church historian, Socrates Scholasticus. (Born Circa 379 A.D. in Constantinople).
The Church Historian, Socrates Scholasticus, in his Ecclesiastical history:
"In Asia minor, most people kept the fourteenth day of the moon:(lunar month) as a Sabbath day. Yet, they, who kept the true [Sabbath], never separated from those, who did otherwise, until victor, bishop of Rome, influenced by too ardent a zeal, fulminated a sentence of excommunication against the Quartodecimans, in Asia. Wherefore also, Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons in France, severely censured victor by letter for his immoderate heat; telling him, that, although the ancients differed in their celebration of 'Easter':[the Passover], they did not desist from intercommunion. Moreover, Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, who afterwards suffered martyrdom under Gordian, continued to communicate with Anicetus Bishop of Rome, although he himself, according to the usage of his native Smyrna, kept 'Easter':[the Passover] on the fourteenth of the moon:(lunar month), as Eusebius attests in the fifth book of his Ecclesiastical History. Therefore, while some in Asia minor observed the days above-mentioned, others, in the east, kept a Passover on the [Sabbath] indeed, but differed as regards the lunar month. The former, [those in Asia Minor], thought the Jews should be followed, though they were not exact. The latter, [those in the east], kept 'Easter':[a passover, contrary to the Law of God], after the equinox, refusing to celebrate with the Jews Because, they said, "it ought to be celebrated when the sun is in Aries, in the month called Xanthicus by the Antiochians, and April by the Romans."
In this practice, they:(those in Asia Minor) asserted:(insisted) as true:
They conformed not to the modern Jews, who are mistaken in almost everything, but they conformed to the ancients.
Do NOT let this writing up above cause the reader to become confused as to when the True Passover of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is commanded in the Law to be kept. Those in the east did NOT follow the true Early Jewish/Christians, who had the True Faith of Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh) Christ:(MaSHiYCH), because those in the east did not establish the Passover according to the True Lunar Calendar of YaHuWaH ALaHiYM.
According to the Law, the first lunar month of the year, for establishing Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, is determined by the sighting of the New Moon Crescent, when the barley plants have the green ears of grain. If the barley plants do NOT have the green ears of barley grain, then the Passover and Feast will Lawfully be kept one lunar month later.
The keeping of the Passover should NOT EVER be determined by the Vernal Equinox. One should ALWAYS look for the New Moon Crescent of Abib:(Green Ears of Barley), in the land of Israel, to establish the Feast. However, today as of 2011, the true people, Israel of YaHuWaH ALaHiYM, do NOT exist upon this earth in the land called Israel. Therefore, those, who keep a feast in the land of modern Israel today, are NOT Accepted by YaHuWaH ALaHiYM, as being the chosen people, who will receive the promise that was given unto Abraham and his seed. The True Israel People of YaHuWaH ALaHiYM will be given an Eternal Inheritance in the Land that was vowed to be given unto them, as was promised unto Abraham, in his day.
Two ideas were prevalent:
(1) That Passover should be observed on the 14th of Abib lunar month, while regarding the four weeks with their Seventh Day Sabbaths of a lunar month. (This belief was based upon the premise that the Jews should be followed). However, this idea was vigorously contested by
(2) Others in the east, who kept a passover on the Seventh Day Sabbath indeed, but differed as regards the lunar month: [they kept a Seventh Day Sabbath passover a lunar month later].
James Dwyer notes:
"Based upon the eastern practice, it was believed that the then Jews were not in complete adherence with more ancient Jewish practices." (A New Look At The Christian Sabbath).
Dwyer continues:
"Essentially one group adhered to the practice of current modern Jews, (which was the determination of passover by the 14th day of the lunar month, when the sun is in Aries, in the month called Xanthicus by the Antiochians, and which was called April by the Romans; that is after the equinox, even though they used a lunar-based calendar). The other group adhered to a more ancient Jewish determination which computed the date of Passover according to the true Sabbath [lunar] calendar, (the same as the ancient chodesh cycle, or four weeks of Sabbath, plus renewal [New Moon] Days), and they kept Passover in the moon:(lunar month) of Abib." (Ibid)
This passage from Socrates Scholasticus clearly show that certain Jews had gone astray by the early 5th century, and were no longer keeping the Seventh Day Sabbath cycle, (which was in tune with the moon's phases), as ordained by YaHuWaH in Exodus 16.
The fact is:
Others in the east, kept passover on the 14th day of the lunar month, when the sun was in Aries, in the month called Xanthicus by the Antiochians, and which was called April by the Romans; meaning after the Equinox, even though they used a lunar-based calendar. Moreover, it indicates that this group in the east was not keeping the Seventh Day Sabbath according to YaHuWaH ALaHiYM true lunar calendar, because YaHuWaH Passover will always come on a Seventh Day Sabbath of the 14th of Nisan:(Abib).
Saturn and the Sabbath
Talking about the time prior to the diaspora, Hutton Webster tells us:
"An old and still common theory, derives a sabbath institution, from the worship of Saturn, after which planet, the first day of the astrological week, [Saturday], received its designation. The theory is untenable for more than one reason. In the first place, the Hebrews did not name their weekdays, after the planets, but indicated them by ordinal numbers. In the second place, Saturn’s day, [Saturday], began the planetary week, while the true Jewish Sabbath was regarded as the last day of the seven, a suitable position for a rest day. And in the third place, neither the Hebrews nor any other oriental people, ever, worshipped the planet Saturn, as a god, and observed his day as a festival." (Ibid., p. 243)
"However, in the diaspora, this soon changed with the influence of the Zoroastrian revival and the Roman planetary week. These imported superstitions [from Babylon], eventually led Jewish rabbis to call Saturn Shabbti, 'the star of the sabbath,' [and]...It was not until [after] the first century of our era, when the planetary week had become an established institution, which the Jewish Sabbath seems always, to have corresponded to Saturn’s day, [Saturday]." (Ibid, p. 244)
Webster explains:
"The association, of the Sabbath day with Saturday, was probably one reason why Saturn, (a planet in Babylonian astrological schemes, regarded as beneficent rather than malefic), should have come to assume, in late classical times, the role of an unlucky star." (Sidus Tristissimum, Stella Iniquissima)
The Roman Historian, Dio Cassius, [born 155 A.D., died after 230 A.D.], also speaks of the Jews having dedicated to their god, the day called 'the day of Saturn', [Saturday], on which, among many other most peculiar actions, they undertake no serious occupation.
Another Roman Historian, Tacitus (Historiae, v, 4) thinks:
"The modern Jewish Sabbath may be an observance in honour of Saturn." (Rest Days, p. 244-245).
Notes the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia:
"With the development of the importance of the Sabbath as a day of consecration and the emphasis laid upon the significant number seven, the week became more and more divorced from its lunar connection." (Volume 10, 1943. Article, "Week", p. 482)
Moreover, writes Hutton Webster:
"The establishment of a periodic week:(continuous week), ending in a so called, 'sabbath' observed every seventh day, was doubtless responsible for the gradual obsolescence of the New Moon festival, as a period of general abstinence, since, with continuous weeks, the New-Moon day and a so called, 'sabbath day', would from time to time coincide." (Ibid., p.255)
This obsolescence of the New Moon festival is also noted by the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia:
"However, in the diaspora, the New Moon came to occupy a secondary position, in contrast to 'a so called Saturday sabbath'; the prohibition against work and the carrying on of commerce was lifted, and the New Moon [Day], although still celebrated by means of increased offerings, soon was reduced to the rank of a minor of half holiday. The importance of [sighting] a New Moon [Crescent] was confined to the fact that it remained of great value and necessity for the fixing of the festivals." (Volume 8, p. 171. Article "New Moon").
In the book "The Seven Day Circle - The History and Meaning of the Week", Eviator Zerubavel observes:
"The Jewish and astrological weeks evolved quite independently of one another. However, given the coincidence of their identical length, it was only a matter of time before some permanent correspondence between particular Jewish days and particular planetary days would be made. A permanent correspondence, between a sabbath and 'the day of Saturn', was thus established. Some time later, than the first century of the present era, Jews even came to name the planet Saturn, Shabtai; After the original Hebrew name of the Sabbath. Moreover, as they came into closer contact with Hellenism, their conception of their holy day was evidently affected by the astrological conception of Saturn, as a planet, which has an overwhelming negative influence; (A conception, which incidentally is still evident even from the association of the English word 'Saturnine', with a gloomy disposition). There are traditional Jewish superstitious beliefs, about demons and evil spirits, who hold full sway on the Saturday sabbath day, and an old Jewish legend even links the choice of 'the day of Saturn', as the official Jewish rest day, with the superstition that it would be an inauspicious day for doing any work anyway." (New York: The Free Press, 1985. p. 17)
Commerce and the Sabbath
On page 11, Zerubavel makes some interesting comments about the Jewish divorcement from the lunar phases, concerning YaHuWaH ALaHiYM true Sabbath day:
"The dissociation of the week from a natural cycle, such as the waxing and waning of the moon, can be seen, as part of a general movement toward introducing a supra-natural deity. The deity not being personified with any particular natural force, the Jewish god was to be regarded as untouched by nature in any way. Accordingly, the day, dedicated to this god, was to be regarded as part of a divine temporal pattern, which transcends even nature itself. That obviously involved dissociating the week from nature and its rhythms. Only by being based on an entirely artificial mathematical rhythm, could a sabbath observance become totally independent of the lunar [month]or any other natural cycle."
Zerubavel goes on to say:
"A continuous seven-day cycle, which runs throughout history, paying no attention, whatsoever, unto the moon and its phases, is a distinctly modern Jewish invention. Moreover, the dissociation of the seven-day week from nature has been one of the most significant contributions of modern Judaism unto civilization. Like the invention of the mechanical clock some 1,500 years later, it facilitates the establishment of what Lewis Mumford identified as 'mechanical periodicity'; Thus essentially increasing the distance between human beings and nature. Quasi [lunar] weeks and [continuous] weeks, actually represent two fundamentally distinct modes of temporal organization of human life; The former involving partial adaptation to nature, and the latter stressing total emancipation from it. The invention of the continuous week was therefore, one of the most significant breakthroughs in human beings' attempts to break away from being prisoners of nature and from being under the Law of ALaHiYM, to create a social world of their own." (The Seven Day Circle, p. 11)
On page 8 of his book, the author further expounds:
"The establishment of a continuous seven-day week, with the regular observance of a Saturday sabbath, is a distinctively modern Jewish contribution to civilization. It is crucial to remember that the ancient dwellers of Mesopotamia, themselves, did NOT have a continuous seven-day week, [as we know it today]. While the seven-day intervals, (entailed in the regular observance of the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days of the lunar month), served as the model for the Jewish week; They, themselves, can NOT be considered continuous ongoing weeks, throughout the year. Such seven-day intervals, which I shall call Quasi-weeks, undoubtedly bear a striking resemblance to the modern day continuous week and are OFTEN MISTAKEN FOR IT. Nevertheless, they are an essentially different phenomenon. One of the most distinctive features of the [present] week, is the fact that it is entirely dissociated from the lunar month. It is essentially defined, as a precise multiple of the day, quite independently of the lunar month. Quasi [lunar] weeks, on the other hand, are generally defined as rough approximations of the phases of the moons:(lunar months), and are appropriately called 'lunar weeks." (By Francis H. Colson, Ibid.)
Zerubavel concludes by saying:
"The indispensability of a continuous week, for the establishment of settled life with a high level of social organization, [was] particularly significant, since the rise of a market economy, which involved orderly contact on regular recurrent, periodic market days. Only by establishing a weekly cycle of an unvarying standard length, could society guarantee that the continuity of its life would never be interrupted by natural phenomena, such as the lunar month. The dissociation of the week, from the lunar month, is, therefore, the most significant breakthrough, in the evolution of this cycle, from its predecessor. Only by defining the week, as a precise multiple of the day, rather than, by the phases of the lunar month, could human beings permanently avoid the problem of having to handle loose remainders; Thus, introduce into their lives the sort of temporal regularity, which they could never attain with the Quasi [lunar] week." (The Seven Day Circle, p. 10)
The evidence is overwhelming of YaHuWaH ALaHiYM Sabbaths being tied to the phases of the moon. In fact, so much material is available, that I have elected to cut short this article, in order not to overload the reader with facts. It is my sincere hope, that the reader will have an open mind and will see the irrefutable truth, that YaHuWaH set the Holy Seventh Day Sabbaths at the end of each of the four phases of a lunar month.
In The End Time Days, known as the last seven years of The Last Days, when YaHuWaH's House of ALaHiYM of Jacob is reestablished by the Two Cherubs, then the Called:(Invited) will keep all of the Seventh Day Sabbaths, which are set at the end of each of the four phases of a lunar month.
The pagan Saturday sabbath is not YaHuWaH ALaHiYM appointed Seventh Day Sabbath, nor is the pagan Sunday. In the search for truth, YaHuWaH ALaHiYM has made known the truth, which frankly is going to separate the humbled person from the person of pride; A separation of those, who will obey YaHuWaH ALaHiYM without doubting, from those, who will continue to thumb their noses at YaHuWaH ALaHiYM, and resist unto the very end.
Many of you may be asking, "How in the world can we keep YaHuWaH ALaHiYM Sabbath Days, by the phases of the moon and according to Exodus 16? It is the most impractical thing we could possibly do, in the way we now live." It is like having been born into a trap. Because we're used to it, we think it is normal. The truth is, the chosen people, Israel, have historically fallen into traps by deception. These very traps came upon the children of Israel, because they turned from keeping the Law of ALaHiYM. When they were taken captive by foreign nations, the law of those nations was not in agreement with the Law of ALaHiYM. Even today, in this Babylon country known as the U.S.A., we are severely persecuted, when we STRIVE to Observe to Do ALL, of the Commandments of the Law. It is Impossible for any human nature minded person to walk perfectly in the Law of YaHuWaH ALaHiYM. We must become Holy Spirit Minded, before we will be accepted by YaHuWaH ALaHiYM. We must become as Israel:(He will rule as Almighty).
These traps are developed:
(1) Because of the transgression of the Law of ALaHiYM. These circumstances are a results of our breaking the Law of ALaHiYM, from the beginning of our lives, unto this day;
(2) Because of the stubbornness of the heart while being proved. (Remember what the Prophet YaRuMiYaHuW said about the heart being desperately wicked).
YaHuWaH ALaHiYM will make righteous honour, authority, and character known unto those, who will become servants of the Two Cherubs. This will be accomplished by the teaching of the Law of ALaHiYM.
Just as surely as YaHuWaH ALaHiYM brought the children of Israel out of Egypt and revealed to them the true Sabbaths of the lunar calendar; It is prophesied, that all of Israel will, once again, return back unto the true Sabbaths of the true lunar calendar in the future, when the servants of the Two Cherubs are reestablished upon Mount Zion, Jerusalem.
The Prophet Isaiah records the culmination of the ages, in Isaiah chapter 66:
"For as the new:(renewed) heavens and the new:(renewed) earth, which I will make, shall remain in the presence of me", says YaHuWaH, "So shall the descendants with righteous name:(honour, authority, and character) remain." "And it shall come to pass, that from one New Moon [Day] to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship in the presence of Me", says YaHuWaH. (Verses 22-23)
The descendants are the whole house of Israel, who will be walking in the honour, authority, and character of YaHuWaH. This is what will remain, when heaven and the earth are renewed.
Therefore, we, (who will be alive and will choose to become servants of the Two Cherubs, who dwell in the presence of the Master of the whole earth, when YaHuWaH's House of ALaHiYM of Jacob is reestablished, upon Mount Zion, Jerusalem), will keep the true New Moon Days and the true Sabbaths, in that future day, perfectly.
I fully realize that these prophecies will occur with the last remnant of the chosen people. A greater deliverance of the chosen people, other than the one from Egypt that occurred at the time of Moses, will occur in the end time of The Last Days. The End Time Days are known as the last seven years, before Jesus:(YaHuWSHuWAh) returns.
We have nowhere to 'exodus' to, yet, because the Two Cherubs, are not in the place, where YaHuWaH has chosen to establish righteous name:(honour, authority, and character). Jerusalem Mount Zion is that chosen place. But in the meantime, those, who understand this prophecy, will earnestly desire for the true peace of Jerusalem. We must continue to STRIVE in obeying the Law, in the land of Babylon, until the Two Princes:(the Two Cherubs, who dwell in the presence of the Master of the whole earth), come.
Remember, the children of Israel sacrificed the passover upon the 14th of Abib lunar month, before they left Egypt on the 15th of Abib lunar month.
Strive to walk in righteousness, now, while living in this land of confusion. The day of deliverance from this confusion will come in its appointed time according to prophecy. The repentant sinner will be delivered in that day.
Now, the reader can click on this Link: LORD God's Design Is Suitable and Fitting For the Well-Being of Humankind, If Humans Use the Creation By Compliance of the Commandments of the Law